Conduct and Community

"With this work, the editors and authors build off the research that indicates living on campus has a positive correlation with college students' success on a variety of metrics, including enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. While numerous aspects of the campus residential experience and their connection to student learning and success has been studied, an examination of the student conduct process is a critical part of the college student residential experience that remains underrepresented in the literature. While practitioners can draw on numerous scholarship options about the broad topic of student conduct, little information exists specifically on the intersection between student conduct and college and university residence halls, and how those dynamics influence the work of residence life professionals and the experience of the students living in the residence halls ... Conduct and Community puts theory into practice by including more than 100 pages of additional resources such as case studies, discussion questions, and more that will help the book serve as a professional development tool. As the editors state, "Readers will not only learn the theoretical underpinnings necessary for effective student conduct processes, but will also get first-hand knowledge from the editors, chapter authors, and resource contributors. These individuals are scholars and practitioners in the fields of student conduct and residence life who understand how to integrate student conduct into on-campus residential communities effectively to maximize student learning, student development, and community accountability." ... The book also offers a holistic view of the value of community and the role of conduct by repeatedly connecting these subjects to an institutions' educational mission as well as institutional goals of inclusion, equity, and social justice. This approach epitomizes the evolving view that the conduct cycle does not begin only when a student violates a rule. Rather, it encompasses the entire student experience. In addition, it considers "conduct" as anything that affects the overall community and, in particular, opposes agreed-upon guidelines. It demonstrates why residence life professionals and conduct officers must understand this intersection and how they must, from day one, strive to establish and nurture a sense of community."--